The Freewheeling Blog and Podcast Returns in September

The fastest pace I’ve ever worked at was in 2009.

I joined Chiltern Railways in January and was immediately seconded to startup open access rail operator Wrexham & Shropshire. Chiltern Railways’ parent company DB was the largest shareholder in Wrexham & Shopshire, which was heavily loss-making.

On my first day, I was told by the Chairman, the late great Adrian Shooter, “The Germans want to shut us down next week. I don’t care what you do, but stop them.”

There were many reasons why the company was losing more than had been envisaged in the business plan but the situation was about to get worse not better, as two established rail franchises (Arriva and Virgin) were planning on launching their own, faster, competing services.

Over the next three months, I recruited a new marketing manager, fired our ad agency, tendered for a new one, redesigned and relaunched our pricing structure, introduced a new product and visual identity, mobilised a ‘save the railway’ campaign involving a consortium of every MP along our line of route (from all three parties), got us a face-to-face meeting of all 11 MPs with the Transport Secretary and mobilised the national media (we got the front page of the Observer and Financial Times, and the leading article in the Times and Guardian). I was interviewed on Radio 4.

By the time my secondment ended 9 months later, we had increased passenger volumes by 88% and revenue by 32%. Both potential competitors had withdrawn. While W&S never moved into profit and was closed down by Adrian three years later, the goal of stopping the Germans that year (never mind that week!) was achieved.

Oh, and in the midst of all that, we had our first daughter.

I have never worked at such a blistering pace either before or since, personally or professionally.

The world is speeding up… and slowing down

The reason I mention this is because pace of change seems to be increasingly divergent. The startup sector, accelerated by digital technology and agile ways of working, is moving faster and faster. The corporate sector, held back by governance, caution and centralisation, is moving slower and slower.

We haven’t time for this

This matters because corporations still control the world. And global pace of change is accelerating. It’s less than a decade since the Paris climate convention set the target of preventing 1.5C of warming. Yet in less than a decade, we’ve already reached (last year) 1.35C. We burnt more fossil fuel last year than any year on record. The pace of response needs to accelerate.

Artificial Intelligence has been coming for such a long time that the extraordinary pace of change of recent years almost goes unnoticed. A decade ago, a computer passing the Turing Test was inconceivable. Now, in some cases, it’s arguably happened.

The divergence between the fastest and the slowest needs to change.

It can be done

I’m lucky enough to have worked in some of the fastest and most agile organisations in our sector, and some of the largest and slowest.

Interestingly, when at Wrexham & Shropshire, it was both. Was I working in a hyper-agile, nimble startup of just a few dozen people? Or was I working in Deutsche Bahn, one of the largest transport companies on earth, with more than 300,000 employees and a sclerotic structure? Both.

The reality is that agility is not about software, technology, data or digital and it doesn’t need to be restricted to small firms and startups: it’s about the incentives and environments in which employees work and these environments can be created anywhere.

I moved at pace in Wrexham & Shropshire because I had an unbelievably tight deadline and absolute control. Those circumstances were unique and the pace ridiculous. But normal organisations can do more to create a sense of urgency and a feeling of empowerment than is often the case today.

Freewheeling’s back!

I’m telling you all this because it’s going to be a greater part of the mission of Freewheeling than before. Indeed it’s the core purpose of the business I have left TfL to create, also called Freewheeling.

The blog and podcast will, of course, continue to focus on transport policy and ideas.

After all, I can see my most popular posts, so I know the kind of thing you like. My top post ever was this analysis of the transport implications of Scottish independence. And, wow, doesn’t that highlight my point about pace of change? When I wrote this just three years ago, the SNP/Green alliance led by Nicola Sturgeon had just won a majority in the Scottish election, Boris Johnson was Prime Minister and I was able to quote the Finland-Russia rail service as an illustration of EU-Russia cooperation.

Other popular posts were this cry of pain about the state of rail fares (a problem very much unresolved) and this - highly controversial - opinion, which I’m rather nervous about drawing attention to, given the arguments that occurred last time.

You also liked lessons from history: whether the Runcorn busway or the London ringways.

So I’ll keep doing things like this.

But I will also focus, as well, on case-studies and lessons from teams that are delivering at pace - both from our sector and beyond. Freewheeling will be about ‘moving forwards faster’ - both literally, and metaphorically.

“The Rest is Transport”

Looking at the most popular podcast episodes, it’s a mixture of what’s happening, interesting people and lessons to learn. The top three most popular were a discussion with the eminent behavioural scientist Rory Sutherland, an absolutely superb tutorial by James Freeman (former manager of First Bristol) on how to grow demand for bus travel and - unsurprisingly - Andrew Haines (CEO of Network Rail).

I will try to maintain this mix of bigwigs, lessons from analogous sectors and “catching people doing things right”: examples of best practice.

Two changes: I’m going to try to be a little more international, with more lessons from overseas. And, as with the blog, I’m going to lean towards examples of teams who are excelling at ‘moving forwards faster’.

Set your clocks

To keep things predictable, I will make sure I post the blog every Monday and a new podcast episode every Thursday. (there may also be extra midweek posts sometimes, but I’ll keep to this regular core pulse).

The first blog of the new season will be on Monday 9th September and the first podcast guest will be joining me on Thursday 12th September.

I would be honoured if you would join us too.

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